In 2014, Ukraine’s revolution ousted President Viktor Yanukovych. The uprising is commonly called the Revolution of Dignity or Euromaidan, after the Kyiv square where months of demonstrations were centered.
The protests began in November 2013 when Yanukovych’s government suspended preparations for an association agreement with the European Union. Demonstrators also objected to corruption, police violence, and the administration’s increasingly authoritarian direction. After deadly clashes in February 2014, Yanukovych left Kyiv and eventually fled to Russia.
On February 22, Ukraine’s parliament declared that Yanukovych had withdrawn from performing his constitutional duties and scheduled an early presidential election. The revolution is sometimes confused with Ukraine’s Orange Revolution of 2004–05, which challenged a disputed election but did not remove Yanukovych from office in the same way. The upheaval was followed by Russia’s occupation and annexation of Crimea and the beginning of the war in Donbas.